Winter in Tahoe: Wildlife have several survival strategies to endure

A mountain chickadee is shown hanging out on an icicle in Glenshire during a previous winter. Mountain chickadees are territorial during breeding season, but will join mixed-species flocks in winter, which provides the benefit of finding food cooperatively and more lookouts for predators.

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INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — With its longer nights, colder temperatures and snowstorms, winter in the Sierra Nevada can be tough to endure.

This is especially true for local wildlife.

“There’s a bunch of different considerations that animals that live here have to contend with in the winter that we don’t, and we’re lucky for it,” said Will Richardson, co-founder and co-executive director of the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science.

In a region where the average annual snowfall is about 430 inches, wildlife can have difficulty moving around and finding food, he said. Low temperatures, scarcity of food and storms paired with high winds don’t help.

Wildlife has three main ways of coping with winter: migration, hibernation or endurance, Richardson explained during his well-attended “Winter Wildlife Survival Strategies” presentation Thursday night at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences building in Incline Village.

MIGRATION

While migration is a popular method — particularly among birds — it is costly, as it requires a lot of energy. Additionally, it’s dangerous, since it entails crossing through unknown habitats where animals migrating may have trouble finding food and shelter and encounter new predators.

Migration, however, isn’t always a long-distance journey. For example, Truckee deer will go to Verdi or Loyalton, Richardson said. Mountain quail, a ground-dwelling bird, will walk to Reno or Auburn.

“We have a lot of species here that only migrate as far as they have to,” said Richardson, who earned his doctorate in ecology, evolution and conservation biology from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he studied bird communities in Sierra Nevada aspen habitats. “They really try to stick around as long as they can, and as long as they can meet their energetic demands, find food and don’t get beat up too much by the weather.”

Examples are the song sparrow and the robin, which will go under snow during storms for shelter and insulation from low temperatures. Yet if the area gets a couple big storms, they’ll leave and go down to Reno, Carson Valley or Auburn for the remainder of winter.

HIBERNATION

Other wildlife such as bears will remain in the area, but will hibernate to get through the winter.

“There’s a tremendous amount of energy to be saved if you can just chill out for awhile,” Richardson said. “Literally drop your body temperature, not trying to fight that too much, not trying to keep your metabolism going.”

As for how long bears will hibernate, that depends on where they live, the amount of food available in the fall and gender, he said. When hibernating, black bears generally don’t eat, drink or relieve themselves. Instead they live off weight they gained prior to winter.

Chipmunks also hibernate, but they will wake up occasionally throughout the winter to eat some previously stored food and relieve themselves.

Snakes, meanwhile, hibernate in groups to keep warm.

ENDURANCE

Wildlife such as voles remain active throughout the winter by staying underneath snow where there are plants and greater protection for low temperatures and predators, Richardson said.

Other techniques employed by wildlife to survive the winter include teamwork and camouflaging their bodies by changing the color of their coats or feathers to white.

“Winter is when you really just have to try to shut down any thought of reproduction or growth and endure until the sun comes around next spring,” Richardson said.

“There’s a tremendous amount of energy to be saved if you can just chill out for awhile.” Will Richardson Tahoe Institute for Natural Science